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Psychology and Learning Processes of Music

MUE733

LEARNING PROCESSES OF MUSICWeek 8

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Learning Theories

• ‘Learning can be defined as the process leading to relatively permanent behavioral change or potential behavioral change. As we learn, we alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way we interact, or behave.• Learning is the process by which we receive and process sensory data,

encode such data as memories within the neural structures of our brain, and retrieve those memories for subsequent use.• Learning Theories are an organized set of principles explaining how

individuals acquire, retain and recall knowledge. They allow us to understand how learning occurs.• There are many labels used to describe the many theories, there are

many theorists associated with each approach.• The spectrum of learning theories consists of many approaches or ways

of explaining how humans learn.

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Behavioral Learning Theories: Behaviorism• The focus of behaviorism is observable human behavior.• John B. Watson (1878-1958), father of behaviorism, was the first to

study how the process of learning affects our behavior. He formed the school of thought known as Behaviorism. • He defined learning as a sequence of stimulus and response actions

in observable cause and effect relationships. Watson believed that the stimuli that humans receive might be generated internally (e.g., hunger) or externally (e.g., a loud noise).• The central idea behind behaviorism is that only observable

behaviors are worthy of research since other abstraction such as a person’s mood or thoughts are too subjective.• Behavioral psychology is basically interested in how our behavior

results from the stimuli both in the environment and within ourselves.

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Behaviorism

• According to behaviorists, learning can be defined as the relatively permanent change in behavior brought about as a result of experience or practice. The focus is on how the environment impacts overt behavior.• Learning occurs when new behaviors or changes in behaviors

are acquired as the result of an individual’s response to stimuli.• Principles: 1. The influence of the external environment

contributes to the shaping of the individual’s behavior; 2. The environment presents an antecedent that prompts a behavior; 3. Whether the behavior occurs again is dependent on the consequence that follows it.

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Behaviorism

• As a teaching approach, behaviorism is often referred to as directed instruction (teacher providing the knowledge to the students either directly or through the set up of “contingencies) or an objectivist theory of learning. The use of exams to measure observable behavior of learning, the use of rewards and punishments in our school system is examples of the Behaviorist influence.• CAI, computer-assisted instruction is an effective way of learning from a

behaviorist perspective as it uses the drill and practice approach to learning new concepts or skills. The question acting as the stimulus, elicits a response from the user. Based on the response a reward may be provided in terms of rewarding the user to a different level.• Applications for instruction: 1. State objectives and break them down

into steps; 2. Provide hints or cues that guide students to desired behavior; 3. Use consequences to reinforce the desired behavior.

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Classical Conditioning: Ivan Pavlov

• Russian psychologist; 1849-1936.• Classical Conditioning was discovered by Pavlov while doing research on

the digestive patterns in dogs.• During his experiments, he would put meat powder in the mouths of dogs

who had tubes inserted into various organs to measure bodily responses. He discovered that the dogs began to salivate before the meat powder was presented to them. Then the dog began to salivate as soon as the person feeding them would enter the room. • Findings support the idea that we develop responses to certain stimuli

that are not naturally occurring.• Pavlov discovered that we make associations which cause us to generalize

our responses to one stimuli onto a neutral stimuli it is paired with.

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• Pavlov began pairing a bell sound with the meat powder and found that even when the meat powder was not presented, the dog would eventually begin to salivate after hearing the bell. Since the meat powder naturally results in salivation, these two variables are called unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the unconditioned response (UCR) respectively. The bell and salivation are not naturally occurring; the dog was conditioned to respond to the bell. Therefore, the bell is considered the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation to the bell, the conditioned response (CR). • Association of stimuli (an antecedent [a stimulus occurring ‘before’

a response] stimulus will reflexively [involuntary] elicit [causes] an innate [inborn] emotional or physiological response; another stimulus will elicit an orienting response) [S-R Link]

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• Many of our behaviours today are shaped by the pairing of stimuli. We make associations all the time and often don’t realize the power that these connections or pairings have on us. But, in fact, we have been classically conditioned. • Conditioning = learning.

Extinction• Occurs when a previously conditioned response decreases in frequency

and eventually disappears. To produce extinction, one needs to end the association between conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. Extinction provides the basis for systematic desensitization, a treatment designed to decrease people’s strong, irrational fears.

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Stimulus generalization• Response to a stimulus that is similar to but

different from a conditioned stimulus; the more similar the two stimuli, the more likely generalization is to occur. E.g. fear of rats – fear of furry animals.

Stimulus discrimination• The process by which an organism learns to

differentiate among stimuli, restricting its response to one in particular. E.g. red and green traffic light.

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Operant Conditioning: B. F. Skinner

• 1904-1990.• Skinner expanded on the foundation of behaviorism, established by

Watson, and on the work of Thorndike, by focusing on operant conditioning. But he believed that internal states could influence behavior just as external stimuli.• The term “operant” refers to how an organism operates on the

environment to produce some desirable result, and hence, operant conditioning comes from how we respond to what is presented to us in our environment. It can be thought of as learning due to the natural consequences of our actions. Eg., OC is at work when we learn that studying hard results in good grades.• Learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or

weakened, depending on its positive or negative consequences.

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Operant Conditioning

• In Classical Conditioning, the original behaviors are the natural, biological responses to the presence of some stimulus such as food, water, or pain. Operant conditioning applies to voluntary responses, which an organism performs deliberately, in order to produce a desirable outcome.• Thorndike’s Cat in the box – goal was to get his cats to learn to

obtain food by leaving the box; freedom as the reinforcer, learns through natural consequences, how to gain the reinforcing freedom and receive food.• Animals in a Skinner Box learn to obtain food by operating on

their environment within the box. • Learning by mistakes – learn to act differently based on the

natural consequences of your previous actions.

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• According to him, voluntary or automatic behavior is either strengthened or weakened by the immediate presence of a reward or punishment.• The learning principle behind operant conditioning is that new

learning occurs as a result of positive reinforcement, and old patterns are abandoned as a result of negative reinforcement.• In the experiment, the food is called a reinforcer, i.e., any stimulus

that increases the probability that a preceding behavior will occur again. Here, food increases the probability that the behavior of pecking (response) will take place. • Bonuses, toys, and good grades could also serve as reinforcers, is

they strengthen a response that comes before their introduction.

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• The delivery of the reinforcer is contingent on the response occurring in the first place.• Primary reinforcer – a reward that satisfies some biological need and works

naturally, regardless of a person’s prior experience, e.g., food, warmth.• Secondary reinforcer – a stimulus that becomes reinforcing by its association with a

primary reinforcer, e.g., money which allows us to buy food.• In Technology of Teaching (1968) he wrote “The application of operant conditioning

to education is simple and direct. Teaching is the arrangement of contingencies of reinforcement under which students learn. They learn without teaching in their natural environments, but teachers arrange special contingencies which expedite learning, hastening he appearance of behavior which would otherwise be acquired slowly or making sure of the appearance of behavior which otherwise never occur.”• Connection of emitted [voluntary] behavior and its consequences (reinforcement

and punishment) [a stimulus occurring ‘after’ a response that changes the probability the response will occur again.

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Reinforcement

• Term means to strengthen, refers to any stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response (Skinner 1938).• Punishment is an unpleasant or painful stimulus that is added to

the environment after a certain behavior occurs; decreases likelihood of behavior occurring again.• Reinforcement increases behavior; punishment decreases

behavior.• There are four types of reinforcement: positive, negative,

punishment and extinction.

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Reinforcement

1. Positive reinforcement – adding stimuli to the environment in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat to increase the response. The most common types of positive reinforcement are praise and rewards.

2. Negative reinforcement – taking something negative away/stimuli whose removal from the environment, in order to increase a response. Involves the elimination of a negative stimulus e.g. nagging.

3. Punishment – refers to adding something aversive following a response in order to decrease a behavior. Eg. disciplining (spanking) a child for misbehaving. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner. Punishment can also be characterized by the removal of a positive reinforcer.

4. Extinction – When you remove something in order to decrease behavior. You take something away so that a response is decreased.

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Refers to the frequency and timing of reinforcement following desired behavior. Schedules and patterns of reinforcement affect the strength and duration of learning. • Behavior that is reinforced every time it occurs is said to be a continuous

reinforcement schedule.• Behavior that is reinforced some but not all of the time is on a partial

reinforcement schedule. Generally, partial reinforcement schedules produce stronger and longer lasting learning than continuous reinforcement schedules.• There are many different partial reinforcement schedules that have been

examined, and can be put into two categories: schedules that consider the number of responses made before reinforcement is given, called fixed-ratio and variable-ratio schedules, and those that consider the amount of time that elapses before reinforcement is provided, called fixed-interval and variable interval schedules.

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• Fixed-ratio schedule – reinforcement is given only after a certain number of responses are made. E.g., a pigeon might receive a food pellet every 10th time it pecked a key (ratio 1:10).• Variable-ratio schedule – reinforcement occurs after a varying number of

responses rather than a fixed number. Although the specific number of responses necessary to receive reinforcement varies, the number of responses usually hovers around a specific average. E.g., door-to-door salesman.• Fixed-interval schedule – a schedule whereby reinforcement is given at

established time intervals, e.g., regular paychecks. Overall rates of response are relatively low.• Variable-interval schedule – a schedule whereby the time between

reinforcements varies around some average rather than being fixed, usually causing a behavior to be maintained more consistently, e.g., surprise quizzes.

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• Shaping is a process for teaching complex behaviors by rewarding closer and closer approximations of the desired final behavior. It is a reinforcing behavior on the way to target behavior. E.g., tuning getting better.

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COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORIES• Developed as a reaction to behaviorism which views the learners and their

behaviors as products of incoming environmental stimuli.• George Miller – provided two ideas that are fundamental to this perspective: 1. Short-term memory can only hold 5-9 chunks of meaningful information. 2. The human mind functions like a computer – taking in information, processes it, stores and locates it and generates responses to it.• Governed by internal process rather than by external circumstance (behaviorism).• The study of the thought processes, or cognitions, that underlie learning

(information processing).• Focuses on the unseen, internal mental processes that are occurring within a

person.• Learning is a change in knowledge stored in memory.

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• Stress the acquisition of knowledge and mental structures and the processing of information and beliefs. Learning as an internal mental phenomenon inferred from what people say and do.• Therefore, the central theme in cognitive theories is the mental

processing of information: its acquisition, organization, coding, rehearsal, storage in and retrieval from memory, and forgetting.• Cognitive theorists emphasize making knowledge meaningful and

taking into account learners’ perceptions of themselves and their learning environments. Must consider how such mental processes might manifest themselves during learning.• Learners as sources of plans, intentions, goals, ideas, memories, and

emotions actively used to attend to, select, and construct meaning from stimuli and knowledge from experience (Wittrock, 1982).

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• The cognitive view of learning is a general approach that views learning as an active mental process of acquiring, remembering, and using knowledge. Learning is a result of our attempts to make sense of the world by using the mental tools at our disposal.• In the cognitive view, knowledge is learned, and changes in

knowledge make changes in behavior possible. Reinforcement is seen as a source of feedback about what is likely to happen if behaviors are repeated. In the behavioral view, the new behaviors themselves are learned; reinforcement strengthens responses.• Applications for instruction:

• Organize new information. • Link new information to existing knowledge. • Use techniques to guide and support students’ attention, encoding, and

retrieval process.

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Knowledge

• Knowledge is the outcome of learning. It also guides new knowledge.• One of the most important elements in the learning process is

what the individual brings to the learning situation. What we already know determines to a great extent what we will pay attention to, perceive, learn, remember, and forget.• Knowledge has been found to be important in understanding and

remembering new information (Recht & Leslie, 1988).• The cognitive perspective on knowledge “emphasizes

understanding of concepts and theories in different subject matter domains and general cognitive abilities, such as reasoning, planning, solving problems and comprehending language”.

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Knowledge

• There are different kinds of knowledge:• Domain specific knowledge that pertains to a particular task or subject.• General knowledge applies to many different situations, for example,

how to read or write.

• Another way of categorizing knowledge is:• Declarative knowledge is “knowing that” something is the case; it is

knowledge that can be declared, usually in words, through lectures, books, writing, verbal exchange, etc.• Procedural knowledge is “knowing how” to do something such as

divide fractions or clean a carburetor – it must be demonstrated.• Conditional knowledge is “knowing when and why” to apply your

declarative and procedural knowledge.

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Information Processing Model of Knowledge• Human mind’s activity of taking in, storing, and using information.• A primary focus of cognitive psychology is memory (the storage and

retrieval of information). The most widely accepted theory is labeled the “stage theory,” based on the work of Atkinson and Shriffin (1968). The focus of this model is on how information is stored in memory; the model proposes that information is processed and stored in 3 stages.• Processing involves gathering and representing information (encoding);

holding information (storage); and getting at the information when needed (retrieval).• Encoding refers to the process used to transform information so that it

can be stored. This means transforming the data into a meaningful form such as an association with an existing memory, an image, or a sound.

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Information Processing Model of Knowledge• Storage means holding onto the information.• Retrieval brings the memory out of storage and reversing the

process of encoding, i.e., returning the information to a form similar to what we stored.• Stage Theory (Atkinson and Shriffin, 1968) proposes that

information is processed and stored in 3 stages, i.e., Sensory Memory (STSS), Short-term memory (STM) and Long-term memory (LTM).

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Sensory Memory

• Information from the environment we receive through the senses.• SM is the initial processing that identifies these incoming stimuli so

that we can make sense of it.• STSS is affiliated with the transduction of energy (change from one

energy to another). The environment makes available a variety of sources of information (light, sounds, smell, hear, cold, etc.) but the brain only understands electrical energy. The body has special sensory receptor cells that transduce this external energy to something the brain can understand. In the process of transduction, a memory is created. This memory is very short (less than ½ second for vision; about 3 seconds for hearing).

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Sensory Memory

• The capacity is very large but the vast amount of sensory information is fragile in duration.• Sensory memory contains a brief but accurate representation of

physical stimuli to which a person is exposed. Each representation is constantly being replaced with a new one.• In order for the learner to transfer the information to the next stage

(STM), it is important that the learner attends to the information at this initial stage.• There are two major concepts for getting information into STM:

• Stimulus has an interesting feature.• Stimulus activates a known pattern.

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Short Term Memory

• Also called working memory. • STM takes over when the information in our SM is transferred to our

consciousness or our awareness.• Relates to what we are thinking about at any given moment in time

(conscious memory); its content is activated memory. Recall of new information.• STM is created by our paying attention to an external stimulus, an

internal thought, or both.• Duration of information is short - memories remain is short-term

storage for 15-20/30 seconds unless it is repeated and are then either transferred to LTM or lost.

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Short Term Memory

• Limitation on information processing in STM is its capacity of 7 + 2 (5-9) chunks of information (Miller, 1956) that can be processed at any one time. Recent research indicates 5+2 for most things we are trying to remember.• There are two major concepts for retaining information in STM: organization

and rehearsal.• Chunking, or grouping pieces of data into meaningful larger units, is a concept

related to organization. It is a technique for getting and keeping information in STM as well as an elaboration that will help get information into LTM.• There are two major types of rehearsal: i) Maintenance rehearsal involves

repeating the information in your mind. It is useful for something you plan to use and then forget, such as a phone number. ii) Elaborative rehearsal involves connecting the information you are trying to remember with something you already know, with information from long-term memory.

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Short Term Memory

• Forgetting: Information may be lost from working memory through interference and decay. • Interference – remembering new information interferes or gets

confused with remembering old information. The new thought replaces the old one. • Decay – when information is not attended to, the activation

level decays and finally drops so low that the information cannot be reactivated, and disappears altogether.

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Long Term Memory

• Also called preconscious memory (information relatively easily recalled) or unconscious memory (data that is not available during normal consciousness) in Freudian terms.• Preconscious memory is the focus of cognitive psychology as it

relates to LTM.• LTM is practically unlimited in terms of its storage capacity.• Once information is securely stored in LTM, it can remain there

permanently.• Access to information in LTM requires time and effort.• Paivio (1971) suggests that information is stored in LTM as either

visual image or verbal units, or both. Information coded both visually and verbally is thought to be easiest to learn (Mayer & Sims, 1994).

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Long Term Memory

• The two processes most likely to move information into long-term memory are elaboration and distributed practice.• Most psychologists distinguish three categories of LTM:

• Semantic memory – memory for meaning, facts and generalized information (concepts, principles, rules; problem-solving strategies; learning strategies).• Episodic memory – memory for information tied to a particular place and

time, especially information about the events or episodes of your own life. It is about events we have experiences, so we can explain when the event happened.• Procedural memory – memory for how to do things. Once learned, this

knowledge tends to be remembered for a long time.

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Learning Processes that Improve LTM• The way we learn information in the first place affects its recall later.

• One important requirement is to integrate new material with information already stored in LTM using:• Elaboration is the addition of meaning to new information through its

connection with already existing knowledge. We apply our schemas and draw on already existing knowledge to construct an understanding and frequently change our existing knowledge in the process. We often elaborate automatically.• Organization: material that is well organized is easier to learn and to

remember than bits and pieces of information, especially if the information is complex or extensive. Placing a concept is a structure will help the student learn and remember both general definitions and specific examples.• Context: aspects of physical and emotional context (places, rooms, how we

are feeling on a particular day, who is with us) are learned along with other information.

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Forgetting• Reasons for forgetting include:• information not making it to LTM • information gets to LTM but is lost before it can attach itself to LTM• decay – information that is not used for an extended period of time

decays or fades away over time

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Perception

• Gestalt principles of perception explain how we “see” patterns in the world around us. It refers to the process of detecting a stimulus and assigning meaning to it [interpretation of sensory information]. The meaning is constructed based on both objective reality and our existing knowledge.• Some of our present day understanding of perception is based on studies

conducted in Germany early in this century by psychologists called Gestalt theorists.• Gestalt means something like pattern or configuration in German, and refers

to people’s tendency to organize sensory information into patterns of relationships.

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Perception

• Instead of perceiving bits and pieces of unrelated information, we perceive organized, meaningful wholes.

• Figure-ground, Proximity, Similarity, Closure

• There are two other kinds of explanations in information processing theory for how we recognize patterns and give meaning to sensory events.• Bottom-up processing (feature analysis): the stimulus must be analyzed

into features or components and assembled into a meaningful pattern “from the bottom up.”• Top-down processing: based on knowledge and expectation. To

recognize patterns rapidly, in addition to noting features, we use what we already know about the situation – what we know about words or pictures or the way the world generally operates.

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Concept Formation

• A concept is a set of rules to define the categories by which we group similar events, ideas or objects [a general category of ideas, objects, people, or experiences whose members share certain properties].• Principles that lend themselves to concept development:

• Name and define concept to be learned (advance organizer)• Identify relevant and irrelevant attributes (guided discovery)• Give examples and non-examples (tie to what is already known – elaboration)• Use both inductive (example/experience - -> definition) and deductive

reasoning (definition - -> examples)• Name distinctive attributes (guided discovery)

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Schemas

• Abstract knowledge structures that organize vast amounts of information. A schema is a pattern or guide for understanding an event, concept or skill. The schema tells you what features are typical of a category, what to expect. It is like a pattern, specifying the “standard” relationships in an object or situation and has slots which are filled with specific information as we apply the schema in a particular situation.

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Becoming Knowledgeable: Some Basic Principles• Declarative knowledge develops as we integrate new information

with our existing understanding. • Three ways to develop declarative knowledge:1. Rote memorization – the least effective way. Remembering information by repetition without necessarily understanding the meaning of the information. Can be improved by part learning and distributed practice.

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2. Mnemonics are systematic procedures for improving memory. Mnemonics as memorization aids include peg-type approaches such as the loci methods, acronyms, chain mnemonics, and the keyword method. Many of these strategies use imagery.• Loci method – locus meaning “place”/technique of associating items with

specific places. To use loci, we must first imagine a very familiar place and pick out particular locations. Every time you have a list to remember, the same locations serve as “pegs” to “hang” memories. Simply place each item form the list in one of these locations. • Acronym – Technique for remembering names, phrases, or steps by using the

first letter of each word to form a new, memorable word. For example HOMES to remember the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). Another method forms phrases or sentences out of the first letters of each word or item in a list, for example EGBDF (Every Good Boy Does Fine).

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• Chain mnemonics – Memory strategies that associate one element in a series with the next element. Because the words must make sense as a sentence, this approach also has some characteristics of chain mnemonics, methods that connect the first item to be memorized with the second, the second with the third, and so on. Another chain-method approach is to incorporate all the items to be memorized into a jingle such as “i before e except after c.”• Keyboard method – System of associating new words or concepts with

similar-sounding cue words and images.

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3. The best way to learn and remember is to understand and use information. Meaningful lessons are presented in vocabulary that makes sense to the students. New terms are clarified through ties with more familiar words and ideas. Meaningful lessons are also well organized, with clear connections between the different elements of the lesson. Meaningful lessons make natural use of old information to help students understand new information through examples or analogies.

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Instructor’s role with cognitive information processing• Cognitive information processing is based on the thought process behind the behavior. The changes in behavior are observed, but only as an indicator to what is going on in the learner’s head. The learner’s mind is like a mirror and new knowledge and skills will be reflected. Cognitive information processing is used when the learner plays an active role in seeking ways to understand and process information that he or she receives and relate it to what is already known and stored within memory. The learner is viewed as having a more proactive role in his/her own learning with this theory.

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• The instructor must provide ways to help the learner process the information. The emphasis is on presenting the information in a clear and logical manner. The learner must organize the information to digest and process it, so chunking and logical sequencing are essential. Instructional methods used with cognitive information processing are:

Discussion and reasoningProblem solving or trouble-shootingAnalogies or imageryClassifying or chunking information into logical groupsMnemonics (abbreviations or phrases that help learners remember)

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When to use cognitive information processing• Conditions under which cognitive information processing effectively contributes to learning:• Learner has experience with subject matter or related area of

knowledge.• Resources are available to help the learner link subject matter with

existing knowledge.• Learner needs or wants to be guided to a more developed

understanding of information.• Instruction time is not severely limited.